theARTIST
My name
is Arla, and I'm an aspiring illustrator/animator/writer, born in 1986. I currently reside in Gothenburg, the second largest city in Sweden,
northern Europe. I share a house with my mother, a cat (Betty), a dog (Tifa)
and a dwarf parrot (Gossamer, a.k.a. Goss-Goss), all of whom I love
dearly.
I'm a full-time secondary school student and I train Wing Chun Kung Fu several times a week. Drawing is a
hobby for now, but I do take commissions (hint: do commission me)! Hopefully
I'll be enrolled at an art university in the not too distant future.
I have a passionate, yet surprisingly easy-going personality. I'm an equalist
(i.e. feminist) and an atheist, and I believe in chance rather than luck or
destiny. I do respect people of other convictions, however illogical it seems
to me to believe in something without proof of its existence.
A fact that more and more people are learning about me, is that I'm a
seriously obsessive fan of Square-Enix's RPG series Final Fantasy (I'm
even working on a FFVIII fan-comic, which you can read more about in the Projects section). I'm
also a long-time fan of the children's books author Astrid
Lindgren.
Online (and offline) I
go by a number of aliases, including (but not limited to) the following:
Swash
Macaw
windinmysails
Athena/Athene
Swashbuckler
And here are a few of my favourite...
...films:
Pirates of the Caribbean I-II, Treasure
Planet, Jurassic Park I-II-III, Howl's Moving Castle, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Ace
Ventura I-II, The Quick and the Dead, Big
Trouble in Little China, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero,
Flying Daggers, War, Police Academy (entire series), Hidalgo,
HellBoy,
Transformers,
Turner
& Hooch, Back to the Future I-II-III,
Tokyo Godfathers, Seven Samurai, Red Beard, Rashoumon, Youjinbou
...TV series:
Penn&Teller's
BULLSH!T, The Crocodile Hunter, M*A*S*H, Buffy
the Vampire Slayer, Angel,
House,
Frasier, Dexter,
The X-Files,
The IT
Crowd, Friends,
Titus,
Dog
Whisperer, Deadwood, Rescue
Me, Life on Mars, MacGyver, Kitchen
Confidential, Lupin III, Black Lagoon,
Naruto, Samurai
Champloo, Fullmetal Alchemist, Malcolm in the Middle,
The Big Bang Theory,
That '70s Show
...books:
Harry
Potter (entire series) + Astrid Lindgren's many books.
...games:
Final Fantasy VII-VIII-IX-X-X2-XII
...actors/actresses:
Michael
J. Fox, Will
Smith, Angelina
Jolie, Johnny
Depp, Jim
Carrey, Matthew Perry, Robert
Redford, Alan
Alda, Clint
Eastwood, Jack
Black, Kurt
Russell, Goldie
Hawn, Neil Patrick Harris, Robin
Williams, Morgan Freeman, Denis Leary,
Bruce Lee,
Jackie Chan,
John Cho, Jason Statham,
Woody
Harrelson, Russell Brand, Viggo
Mortensen, Toshirou Mifune, Christopher &
Danny Masterson
...otherwise
renowned people: Steve Irwin, J.K.
Rowling, Gudrun Schyman, Kofi Annan, Romeo
Dallaire, Astrid Lindgren,
Cesar
Millan, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Nelson
Mandela
...fictional
characters: Zell Dincht
(FFVIII), Balthier Bunansa
(FFXII), Jack Sparrow (PotC), Hawkeye Pierce
(M*A*S*H), Chandler Bing (Friends), Ace Ventura (Ace
Ventura), Spike
(BtVS, Angel), Albus Dumbledore (HP), Calamity Jane (Deadwood), MacGyver
(MacGyver), Lee
(Naruto), Mugen (Samurai Champloo), Greed (Fullmetal Alchemist), Marty McFly
(Back to the Future)
You can find me at these art communities:
deviantART (this is where I'm most active)
And this is
my e-mail address, should you wish to contact me:
theART
As an artist, I'm heavily influenced by folklore, mythology and such;
I find the Scandinavian and East-Asian myths especially fascinating, and I mix
them freely in my work.
My favourite creatures include: "Tomtar" (dwarf-sized, Father
Xmas-like gnomes of Scandinavian folklore), dragons (all kinds!), huldras
("skogsrån"), mountain trolls ("bergatroll"), maras and
knytt (small and shy creatures of Scandinavian folklore). Not too keen on
angels, devils and such.
The work of the Japanese artist Tetsuya Nomura is of
great inspirational value to me. He incorporates traditional aspects into
modern designs in a very skilful manner - something that I, too, strive to
accomplish.
Other artists whose work inspires me greatly are: John Bauer, Akihiko Yoshida, Ilon Wikland, Carl Larsson, Lars
Carlson, Curt and Jenny
Nyström, Hayao
Miyazaki, Kazuhiko
Katou (Monkey Punch), Hokusai,
Sven Nordqvist and Elsa Beskow.
I primarily use traditional media to make art; graphite & coloured
pencils, watercolours etc. Although I do own a Wacom tablet, I mainly use it for touch-ups on traditional pieces.